Wednesday, December 22, 2010

In the last year of his life my great-grandfather Louis Windmuller could read press accounts referring to him as the "patriarch of Woodside" or simply "Windmuller of Woodside." By then he and his family had lived on his estate in that village for close to half a century. Newsmen referred to him as Woodside's "grand old man," an "old and prominent" resident. A reporter for the great grey lady that was the New York Times said he was "venerable ... a picturesque figure in the life of the city ... with his fringe of gray hair encircling the base of a finely shaped head, the bald top of which is burned a bright red by exposure to the weather, [as] he slowly walks through the city's streets and from and to his home at Woodside, Queens, nearly every morning and night." By another account he was "a nice old gentleman, bald headed, smooth shaven, benevolent of visage, kind of heart, cheerful in demeanor."[1]

Portrait of Louis Windmuller late in life

{From THE COMMERCIAL PROGRESS OF GOTHAM by Louis Windmuller, in Volume 1 of The Progress of the Empire State: A Work Devoted to the Historical, Financial, Industrial, and Literary Development of New York, by Charles Arthur Conant (The Progress of the Empire State Company, 1913)}

Born in 1835, he was 32 when he bought the Woodside property and 78 when death claimed him there. His natural acumen, energy, affability, and prudence brought him success in business and public affairs. He learned hard lessons from mistakes he made, fought tenaciously when others did him wrong, and generally accepted gracefully those untoward events which could not have been avoided.

You can see his prudence and acumen in his actions during the first financial recession he had to survive as a merchant. This account comes from an article he wrote for The Forum in 1908. He says that he took his money out of the bank he used and simply waited out the slump, playing chess, as he says, in his office with his clerk.[2]

In 1857, when the writer [i.e., Windmuller] was already established in business, he learned by the failure of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company how to face difficulties that are apt to confront us on the occasion of almost every panic.

He drew in current bills some money from a Williamsburgh Bank and $100 in gold from the Bank of New York. When subsequently almost every financial institution this side of the Rockies closed its doors, the writer would play chess in his office with his clerk, while his distracted neighbors chased the fleeting shadows of ephemeral bankers.

Wampum had been discarded... the circulating medium consisted of notes issued by banks in different parts of the country, some under guarantee of a safety fund held by States, others by so-called "free banks." While the former generally passed at their face values, bills of the latter, named also "wild cats," ranged, according to their redemptive qualities, at one-half per cent. to ten per cent. discount. The possibility of their being presented for payment never troubled the banker's mind when he stamped them "Payable at his Counter," and forwarded them for circulation.

An inquisitive New York broker once ventured to send his clerk with a satchel full of such bills to a town in Illinois; he found a log cabin on a prairie road, with a sign of the bank over the door and a "cashier" the only occupant. The "cashier" expressed profuse regrets that the President happened to be in Chicago and that he had taken the cash box with him.

At the outset of the panic of 1857, the remaining institutions of that class became insolvent.

Credit was expensive in 1857; the writer knew traders who had to pay for a single day's accommodation as much as one per cent. Merchants who would not submit to the hardship of such usury failed to meet their engagements; manufacturers were obliged to discharge their workmen and close their mills when their customers defaulted.

Prosperity revived sooner than we anticipated. A large number of the merchants who failed in 1857 were able to resume in 1858; by the credit we extended to deserving customers we laid an early foundation for a long-continued good business.

Following the panic business was good, as he says, until "when Fort Sumter was bombarded in 1861 and the Civil War began, almost every Northern merchant who traded with the South was ruined. The banks realized that the Government could not borrow sufficient money to bring the war to a successful end, and suspended in December, 1861, except the Chemical, where the writer kept his account. His business had grown and included foreign accounts. Being anxious to protect his European creditors, he called on the bank to inquire about a balance of some $5000 he had on deposit. His mind was relieved when he was promptly assured that this balance had been placed to his credit in gold — 'because it had been as good as gold when deposited.' No other bank was equally considerate. The action encouraged the writer to keep his books on a gold basis, and taught him to abstain from risky ventures."[3]

During the Civil War he was commissioned by military suppliers to import swords and other necessities for the federal armies and did some importing on his own. He also gained a reputation as a reliable agent for obtaining European goods for private parties in the US. By 1865 he had established himself at 20 Reade Street in Manhattan, an office which served as his home base for the next 50 years. Over the next couple of years he managed to save enough to buy ten acres in the Village of Woodside, Queens, on which to build a home for his growing family.[4]

The Panic of 1857 and the outbreak of the Civil War were not the only financial crises he had to survive nor the only challenges to his upward progress as a merchant. In 1862 sabres he was importing for the use of Union armies were rejected as not meeting Federal requirements. He was authorized to have them fixed and did so.[5] A year later merchandise that he was bringing into the country on behalf of customers was seized by a corrupt custom agent who falsely claimed that Windmuller was a smuggler.[6] He fought back and survived that challenge and then in 1864 he got stuck with a warehouse full of swords that he'd imported for Union armies which, as it turned out, didn't need them. His loss was magnified by his obligation to pay tariff duties on the full price despite the diminished value of the merchandise.[7] Then in 1865 he lost money in a shipwreck. The bark Katharine, which he had chartered, was severely damaged by a storm at sea, and although its crew and passengers were saved, it seems the contents of its hold may not have been.[8] In 1870 he again had merchandise seized in customs under the same corrupt system which had troubled him in 1863.[9]

{New York Times, February 1, 1870}

Note in this account the description of his business as a "large German importing firm" and its scale of operations: "agents of some forty manufacturers abroad." It's evident that the setbacks which Windmuller suffered in these early years did not prevent him from prospering. The brief biographies written about him many years later identified this period of his life as one of growing success and there are glimpses of this burgeoning preëminence in the press.

Louis Windmuller and Roelker, the business of which he was the main partner, continued to thrive and he was able to set up a subsidiary office in Frankfurt-am-Main. Within a few years, he had funds enough to become a principal investor in the New York Central Rail Road and to begin to diversity his business interests.[10] In 1865 he helped found a safe deposit company for merchants in Manhattan's jewelry district and by the mid-1870s he had also helped found an fire insurance company, a life insurance company, and a national bank.[11] By the early 1880s he had added a title insurance company, a local bank, a savings bank, a magazine, a general insurance company, a realty company, and a bond and mortgage insurance company. He became a director of most these companies and president of the savings bank.[12]

By the mid-1880s, as his business pursuits brought him wealth and social prominence, Windmuller began to turn his attention to political and cultural affairs. As one of the mini-bios puts it, "he has ever been conspicuously active as a reformer for the betterment of the social conditions of this great city."[13] I'll treat this subject in the next post.

Moieties and Customs Revenue Laws. Evidence Before the Committee on Ways and Means Relative to Moieties and Customs-Revenue Laws. May 2, 1874. in MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS printed by order of the House of Representatives during the first session of the forty-third Congress, 1873-74

"The Commercial Progress of Gotham," by Louis Windmuller, in The progress of the Empire State, a work devoted to the historical, financial, industrial, and literary development of New York (New York, The Progress of the Empire State Company, 1913)

[1] These quotes come from the Newtown Register, New York Sun, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and New York Times.

[2] The article appears in The Forum, Volume 40 (Forum Pub. Co., 1908). Here's Windmuller's account of the Panic of 1857 in full:

In 1857, when the writer [i.e., Windmuller] was already established in business, he learned by the failure of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company how to face difficulties that are apt to confront us on the occasion of almost every panic.

He drew in current bills some money from a Williamsburgh Bank and $100 in gold from the Bank of New York. When subsequently almost every financial institution this side of the Rockies closed its doors, the writer would play chess in his office with his clerk, while his distracted neighbors chased the fleeting shadows of ephemeral bankers.

Wampum had been discarded; Clearing House certificates had not yet been invented and coin was scarce. The circulating medium consisted of notes issued by banks in different parts of the country, some under guarantee of a safety fund held by States, others by so-called "free banks." While the former generally passed at their face values, bills of the latter, named also "wild cats," ranged, according to their redemptive qualities, at one-half per cent. to ten per cent. discount. The possibility of their being presented for payment never troubled the banker's mind when he stamped them "Payable at his Counter," and forwarded them for circulation.

An inquisitive New York broker once ventured to send his clerk with a satchel full of such bills to a town in Illinois; he found a log cabin on a prairie road, with a sign of the bank over the door and a "cashier" the only occupant. The "cashier" expressed profuse regrets that the President happened to be in Chicago and that he had taken the cash box with him.

At the outset of the panic of 1857, the remaining institutions of that class became insolvent.

The bills of almost all banks, even those of doubtful value, were counterfeited. Thompson's Bank Note Reporter, published bi-monthly at No. 2 Wall Street, New York City, carefully described all detected counterfeits and quoted market prices for all discredited money. After the business man, who would rather dispense with Bible and Prayer-book than with the latest Thompson, had made a careful examination of his receipts and obtained the endorsement of a responsible person to every doubtful bank-note, he went at 2.30 P.m. to his broker to change the uncurrent for current money, as his bank would receive only the latter.1

Credit was expensive in 1857; the writer knew traders who had to pay for a single day's accommodation as much as one per cent. Merchants who would not submit to the hardship of such usury failed to meet their engagements; manufacturers were obliged to discharge their workmen and close their mills when their customers defaulted.

The fare to Chicago was reduced to $5, yet the cars were empty; we rarely met on the way a traveller who was not a deadhead. Almost every road passed into receivers' hands; at one time railroad obligations other than receivers' certificates were not recognized.

The writer, on one of those gloomy days, was agreeably surprised by the invitation of a friend to join him in a glass of wine. We went to Delmonico's, at the junction of Beaver and William Streets in New York, and while Longhi uncorked a bottle of his best, friend Andrew unfolded a letter to explain the whimsical reason for his good cheer. In the conventional terms of the times the letter simply announced the insolvency of another firm. As this closed the long list of his debtors no other failures impended to disturb his mind. We celebrated his deliverance, and drank to a speedy resumption of this and of the numerous debtors who had preceded him.

Prosperity revived sooner than we anticipated. A large number of the merchants who failed in 1857 were able to resume in 1858; by tho credit we extended to deserving customers we laid an early foundation for a long-continued good business.

That short panic had been caused by premature expenditure for railroads built to develop new territory. Colonists could not be induced to settle along their lines as fast as promoters expected, and Western merchants had been more lavish than prudent in granting long credits to newcomers.

When the crops were gathered and gold from California and from Europe began to pour into the coffers of banks, confidence returned and the crisis was forgotten.

[3] THE COMMERCIAL PROGRESS OF GOTHAM by Louis Windmuller, in Volume 1 of The Progress of the Empire State: A Work Devoted to the Historical, Financial, Industrial, and Literary Development of New York, by Charles Arthur Conant (The Progress of the Empire State Company, 1913)

[4] I've previously outlined some of Windmuller's business transactions. See commission merchant.

[6] Windmuller was not the only merchant who was victimized. A great deal has been written about customs abuses of the time. See for example Moieties and Customs Revenue Laws. Evidence Before the Committee on Ways and Means Relative to Moieties and Customs-Revenue Laws. May 2, 1874. in MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS printed by order of the House of Representatives during the first session of the forty-third Congress, 1873-74.

[7] This comes from an article he wrote some years later. It gives his reasons why duties should be paid on the current value of merchandise at time the duty is assessed rather than the cost or purchase price.

[10] Here is the text of the appeal of the railroad stockholders from the Evening Journal, March 21, 1865.

The Central Rail Road

To the Honorable the Legislature of the State of New York:

The undersigned, Stockholders in the New York Central Rail Road Company, respectfully represent to your Honorable Body, that the changes occasioned by and incident to a state of war have affected the operations of their road so unfavorably that they have been compelled to appeal to the Legislature for relief; and in support of that appeal we ask leave to submit, very briefly, the facts and figures upon which the appeal is founded —

The expenses actually paid for the first threemonths of each of the two years compare asfollows : — Oct, Nov. and Dec., 1864......... $2,871,526 95Oct, Nov. and Dec., 1763 [1863].. $2,211,588 51

Increase in 1864................. $ 659,938 44

A similar increase during the rest of the present year would make a total of $2,639,753 76, but, as expenses during the first three months are naturally larger than a proportion of the yearly amount, a deduction should be made, estimated at twenty-five per cent, which would leave the amount, $1,979,815 32.

In the Commercial, Manufacturing and Agricultural business of the country, these advances in the cost of products and materials adjust themselves; while, as is known, rail roads are held to Peace Fares, in other words, we are required to pay Gold for all we purchase, without being at liberty, as individuals are, to demand an equivalent in currency. In paying twice, and twice and a half, for all that is required to operate our road, with no increase of Fare, we receive less than fifty per cent of the amount realized when Currency represented Gold!

These facts, applicable to all our rail roads, furnish a strong argument in favor of a general increase of rail road fares; but when the facts are presented merely to sustain our application to be relieved from a disability, are they not conclusive? We simply ask to be placed on an equality with other roads — to receive for our passenger business the same fares lawfully demanded by and cheerfully paid to all other companies.

In the equity of this appeal, there is, we understand, a pretty general concurrence of sentiment. Standing upon its merits, disconnected with other questions, it would, it is supposed, commend itself to legislative favor. Stockholders, anxious only for the safe investment of our capital, we desire to see a wise, discreet, impartial management of the affairs of the company; and without inquiry, as to the past, is it not safe to assume, that the Legislature, remembering only what is just and right, should relieve the New York Central Rail from an onerous burthen, its officers, with a corresponding magnanimity, would, in the future, endeavor to avoid any just ground for popular complaint?

In behalf of ourselves, and of the widows and orphans who constitute a large claim of stockholders, we earnestly pray that your Honorable body will pass a law giving the New York Central Rail Road the rates of tare to which other companies are entitled.

[11] See National Cyclopedia of American Biography (1944). The institutions are, respectively, the Maiden Lane Safe Deposit Co., the German-American Fire Insurance Co., the German Alliance Insurance Co., and the Hide & Leather National Bank. Here is an 1878 ad for the German-American Insurance Co.

AS a useful illustration of the high degree to which noble principle and unselfish devotion to duty can be carried into a successful business life with the preservation of absolute consistency of Christian character, the career of Louis Windmueller is noteworthy.

Louis Windmueller is a native of Westphalia, Germany, and received a collegiate education at Munster, which had the honor of being founded by Charlemagne. He emigrated to the United States in 1853, and entered into the mercantile business with exceptional success. He has also been a director of many companies, and is still associated with the Title Guarantee and Trust Company, the German-American Insurance Company, the Hide and Leather National Bank, and the Bond and Mortgage Guarantee Company. He has ever been conspicuously active as a reformer for the betterment of the social conditions of this great city, and was one of the founders of the Reform Club, and has served as its Treasurer since 1887. He is also a member of the German-American Reform Union, and, as one of its Executive Committee, aided the election of William L. Strong, as Reform May-or of the City of New York. Mr. Windmueller's interest in public affairs is shown by his active work with municipal and State associations. He is Chairman of the Committee on Internal Trade and Improvements, of the Chamber of Commerce, and Head of the Executive Committee for the Improvement of the State Canals. He is, in addition, Auditor of the Business Men's Relief Committee, and an earnest worker with many charitable institutions.

Mr. Windmueller was married in 1859, and has a family of three children. His home is at Woodside, Long Island, and possesses a fine collection of modern paintings and a valuable library. He is a founder and Vestryman of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, of Woodside.

Mr. Windmueller is also a contributor on the liberal discussions of public affairs to the Forum, Harpers' Weekly, and other important publications. He is also a member of the Merchants', German, Lotus, Insurance, and Athletic Clubs, the New York Historical Society, Treasurer of a fund for the erection of a monument to Goethe, and Vice-President of the Heine Monument Society, and others too long to enumerate.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

The middle of the seventeenth century was a period of religious turmoil in England and America. There's much written about the theological battles which accompanied the English Civil War and its aftermath.[1] Conflicts among sects in the American colonies have drawn less attention, mainly, it appears, because these conflicts could be resolved by the stronger party banishing the weaker one to the wilderness outside settled areas.[2] Surprisingly, in the vicinity of Newtown (where my great-grandfather, Louis Windmuller, built a house), the faithful of differing beliefs generally managed to coexist with little friction. There, Anglicans, Presbyterians, and the Calvinists whom everyone called Independents tolerated one another well enough to keep any differences out of official records.[3] The conflicts that do show up in these documents concern smaller groups, in particular the Quakers. The first Quakers on western Long Island had gained the right to practice their faith through their own stubborn efforts and the steadfast support of their neighbors.[4] They convinced quite a few others to join them (including many of my ancestors) and the Society of Friends established itself solidly and permanently in Flushing and, later, also in Newtown.[5]

The Quakers' success was not complete however. They suffered both from the persistence an early tendency of Friends to excessive enthusiasm and from an outbreak of excessive enthusiasm within the local community at large.[6] The problem of over-enthusiastic Friends was a manifestation of Quakerism in what one writer calls as "a tremendous flame, burning across the countryside."[7] Early Quakers could be and often were ecstatic in expressing their beliefs.[8] The tendency to extreme behavior within the community at large was mostly a wild outpouring which contemporaries called ranting.

Ranters was a collective term used against any group that flouted the social and religious norms held by the majority of the population.[9] Ranters were disorganized and anarchic. Part of an upsurge of "secular and theological individualism," they seem to have emerged when traditional authority structures of church and state lost their grip during the English Civil War.[10]

Quakers were greatly troubled by ranters. It was bad enough that Ranters disrupted Quaker meetings; worse that, to contemporaries, the distinction between ranter and Quaker was not easily made.[11] Quakers were mortified to find ranters identified as "Young Quakers," "New Quakers," "Singing Quakers," or "Half Quakers." In 1687, a colonial governor of New York complained of "an abundance of Quaker Preachers; men and women; especially Singing Quakers, Ranting Quakers."[12] And, indeed, those ranters were often former Friends and many called themselves Friends. According to one Quaker historian, "Among the groups of Anabaptists, Seekers, and so-called 'Antinomians,' wherever they appeared, there formed a radical wing composed of those who were less stable mentally, less organized morally, and less under the social direction of the groups to which they belonged. The Friends, with their lack of ecclesiastical authority, and with their doctrine of the Light within, were almost certain to suffer from the Ranter propagandism, and the movement did pick off some of the members who were ill-balanced and easy subjects of fanaticism. The Quaker leaders had powerfully proclaimed the possibility of complete salvation from sin, and it was only to be expected that some emotional Quakers, especially such as had a strain of hysteria, would make extravagant claims."[13]

Quakers in Newtown suffered from the antics of ranters. Writing in 1852, a writer for the Friends Intelligencer says, "The early history of Friends in Newtown and Maspeth Kills is marred by the irregularities of the Ranters, who claimed to be Friends, and intruded on their meetings. Such was Thomas Case, who (1674) was forbidden by the Court to entertain the wife of William Smith. His wife, Mary Case, was fined £5 for interrupting Rev. William Leveridge, while preaching, by saying to him: 'Come down, thou whited wall that feedest thyself and starvest the people.' Samuel Scudder sent a long, scandalous letter to Mr. Leveridge. The Court put Case and Scudder under bonds not 'to seduce and disturb the people.'"[14]

None of these people were itinerant troublemakers. All of them — Thomas Case and his wife Mary, Mrs. Smith, William Leverich, and Samuel Scudder — were all Newtown residents. Case, Smith, and Scudder were freeholders, men of property, heads of families that had settled the area when it was still Dutch New Netherland. It's apparent that they believed deeply in the radical cause they espoused and did not scruple to offend their neighbors in their efforts to convert the right path they felt themselves to be following.

We know of their actions from court records. The offense committed by Mary Case was both brief and sensational. She entered the Anglican church in Newtown on Sunday afternoon, September 5, 1675, and berated Rev. Leverich in the pulpit and, at length, the constable being called, she went quietly with him. Here's the text of the accusation given at the October assizes:

A Presentm't brought by the Constable of New Towne against Mary Case, for disturbance of the Minister of New Towne, in time of Service.

Capt. Coe declares That bee was then there, and heard say to the Minister, Come down thou whited Wall, thou art one that feedest thy selfe and starvest thy flock, and as bee thinks Seducer.

A warrant to bee sent for her, to bee here on Tuesday morne.

Called to account, she said simply she "went in obedience to the Lord, to declare against Mr. Leverich's doctrines." The court convicted her of causing a disturbance and gave this sentence: "Mary Case for disturbing Mr Leverich and the Congregaton, the Judgment of the Court is, that shee shall Pay immediately the Some of five Pounds to the King, and to Continue in Prison till it be paid, after w'ch to bee of the good Behavior."

Documents do not tell us what it was Samuel Scudder wrote to Rev. Leverich that was so scandalous. Regarding William Smith's complaint against Thomas Case I have found no details, but about his other transgressions they have much to say. Witnesses told the court that he preached and in other ways behaved like an ordained minister although not ordained and he made blasphemous claims of sainthood and worse. Here are extracts from court documents on his actions:[15]

Mr Cornell Sworne: Saith that yesterday was three weekes, hee Saw Tho: Case [i.e., Thomas Case] at flushing at John Bouno's [i.e., Bowne's, about whom I've previously written] or before his Doore and did see him make a great disturbance there.

Mr Wandall Sworne, Saith, That hee hath knowne Tho: Case Seu'rall times since his being Bound to the Good Behavior, Preaching and denouncing Judgm't against ye People; And having severall people from Oyster Bay and other Places, at his House Some Singing, and others in other Postures wth seurall Tones; In Particular of Sam'l Scudders strange Actings, and others in Cases House, lying like Doggs, Hoggs and Cowes.

John Woolstoncraft, Saith, That Tho: Case told him at a particular time there was a great smell of Brimstone, hee replied, bee was afraid Case was going that way.

Another time, that David Jennings fell downe, as if dead, and Case undertooke to bring him to life.

Mr Cornell Saith, hee hath w'th drawne several from their ffamilyes, particularly one Edward Banbury of Mad-Nans Neck who neglected his ffamily, so that hee and his ffamily, were ready to Starve.

Thomas Wandall Saith, that there was a meeting at his House, for 14 dayes together, and Keepes many poore People from their ffamilyes and businesse.

James Way, Saith, that about a yeare & halfe agoe Tho: Case told him hee was God, But afterwards hee said hee was of God, and so must hee bee, or bee of the Devill.

William Wyat, Saith, that going once to heare Tho: Case preach, hee heard him say, that when hee should dye, hee should rise againe the third day.[16]

We know that Thomas and Mary Case continued to reside in Newtown after serving their sentences. Two wills of a few years later (1679) name Mary as a legatee.[17] We also know that Thomas Case, along with John Bowne, was considered to be a prominent member of the first Friends Meeting in Newtown in 1659.[18]

-----

This photo of the old Leverich homestead gives an idea of what Thomas Cases's and Samuel Scudder's houses looked like.

{The Leverich Family Homestead - south side of Trains Meadow Road -Newtown, Queens County, Long Island, New York - before 1909. Built by 2-Caleb Leverich about 1670. Caleb's grandson 4-John Leverich built an addition to the homestead in 1732. This eastern view is now 35th Road from 70th Street Image and descriptive caption from the collection of Catherine Gregory of Woodside, N.Y. Used with permission. Mrs. Gregory is the author of Woodside, Queens County, New York: A Historical Perspective 1652-1994. found on http://www.leverichgenealogy.org/}

This land transfer to Thomas Case in 1680 mentions his property as a boundary:

{source: Extracts from the Records of Newtown in Newtown Register, July 17, 1884}

Oddly, a record survives of a court case in which Thomas Case is required to give security that he will not spend money or dispose of property that belongs to his wife Mary Case as a beneficiary of her late husband's will:

JOHN BOWNE OF FLUSHING, 1627-1095. WITH A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE BI-CENTENN1AL ANNIVERSARY OF THE NEW YORK YEARLY MEETING OF FRIENDS, 1695-1895, AS OBSERVED AT FLUSHING, LONG ISLAND. IN FIFTH MONTH, 1895. [Excerpts from pamphlet report of proceedings, published at expense of both yearly meetings, by Friends Book & Tract Committee, 45 East Tenth street, New York.] found in Annals of our colonial ancestors and their descendants: or, Our Quaker forefathers and their posterity by Ambrose Milton Shotwell (Printed for the author by R. Smith & co., 1895)

[1] Regarding turmoil in Great Britain, see, for example, George Fox and Friends, in THE QUAKERS, Money and Morals, by y James Walvin, who says: "In the 1640s... the entire nation was racked by personal and social agitations that had been whipped up by a bloody and vengeful civil war. That decade, and the Interregnum years of the 1650s, formed what Christopher Hill has described as 'the greatest upheaval in English history'. Old assumptions and beliefs -- old certainties -- were shattered by the convulsion of religious and political freedoms which had scarred most people in some way or other. The traditional acceptance that all English people belonged to the national Church and must worship as a matter of obligation was destroyed for ever. As the world turned upside-down, religious and political groupings of the most varied (and sometimes most bizarre) kind sprang up across the nation. Unleashed by the collapse of draconian censorship laws, books and tracts flew off the presses in unprecedented numbers, speaking for each and every sect and radical splinter group. The printed word was eagerly devoured by a curious readership that had been previously kept in check."

[3] In all of the colony of New York, wrote its governor in 1678, "There are here Religions of all sorts, one church of England, several Presbiterians and Independents, Quakers and Anabaptists of several sects, some Jews, but Presbiterians and Independents most numerous and substantial." -- Governor Andros on the religious condition of the Province of New York in 1678, quoted in The Quakers in the American colonies by Rufus Matthew Jones, Amelia (Mott) Gummere, Isaac Sharpless, Isaac (London, Macmillan, 1911). John Bowne, as I've said, convinced directors of the Dutch West India Company to countermand an attack on Quakers by the governor of New Netherland. The result was a guarantee of free religious expression and, to large extent, accompanying freedom from religious strife.

[4] I've written about the struggle between locals and the Dutch government of New Netherland on previous occasions. See Bownes, Newtown families, and love, peace and liberty condemn hatred, war and bondage. In convincing the directors of the West India Company to end persecution, John Bowne — the "blameless John Bowne" — did more than any other to end Stuyvesant's legal assault on Quakers. This comes from Quaker historian Rufus Jones:

Soon after his return as a free man, John Bowne was walking the street of Flushing and met the Governor. The chief magistrate "seemed much abashed for what he had done," but showed his manliness by saying, "I am glad to see you safe home again." The straightforward Quaker acknowledged his greeting and added, "I hope thou wilt never harm any more Friends." And he never did. Bowne's victory had, as moral victories generally do have, far-reaching consequences. He not only won his personal freedom, but he called forth from the Directors of the Colony a proclamation of the principle of complete religious toleration, "The consciences of men ought to remain free and unshackled." But that was not all. When the next year the Colony was conquered by the English, an article establishing "liberty of conscience in divine worship and church discipline" for all Dutch subjects was put in the articles of agreement surrendering the territory. In 1664, the year the Colony passed into English control, the "Duke s law" provided that "no person shall be molested, fined, or imprisoned for differing in judgment in matters of religion," and from that time on the principle was recognised throughout the Colony as a fundamental right, though in practice it was still occasion ally violated. -- The Quakers in the American colonies by Rufus M. Jones (London, Macmillan, 1911).

[5] Flushing: "Built in 1694 by John Bowne and other early Quakers, the Old Quaker Meeting House is, by all known accounts, the oldest house of worship in New York State and the second oldest Quaker meeting house in the nation." -- Flushing Quaker Meeting House. Newtown: "The Friends, or Quakers, who hitherto had held connection with the society at Flushing, having increased to a goodly number, resolved to erect a house of worship in the village of Newtown. On Feb. 25th, 1720, Robert Field, a leading member of that persuasion, bought of Benjamin Moore about half an acre of ground, on the corner now occupied by the residence of Robert Mack, which he conveyed, July 5th, 1722, to Joseph Rodman, Richard Betts, and Richard Hallett, " in trust for and in behalf of the people of God called Quakers," and a meeting-house was immediately erected thereon, where the Friends long continued to hold their convocations." The annals of Newtown, in Queens county, New-York containing its history from its first settlement, together with many interesting facts concerning the adjacent towns; also, a particular account of numerous Long island families now spread over this and various other states of the union by James Riker (D. Fanshaw, 1852)

[6] One writer of our time says that "Quakerism in 1652 is a tremendous flame, burning across the countryside. 1659 is probably the peak of political radicalism for Quakerism as a movement. By 1690, those flames are cooling to embers, embers which have sustained Quakerism to the present, through a long list of additional shifts." Using here the old sense of the word enthusiasm: "Possession by a god, supernatural inspiration, prophetic or poetic frenzy; an occasion or manifestation of these." -- OED.

[8] Contemporaries were shocked by "quaking fits" of some Quakers. Others complained about their public denunciations of priests and ministers (an example of this rhetoric: "the plagues of god shall fall upon the and the seven vials shall be poured out upon thee and the millstone shall fall upon thee and crush thee as dust beneath the Lord's fee how can thou escape the damnation of hell."). Still others offended by their eccentricities, such as going unclothed in public places. See The Quakers in America by Thomas D. Hamm

[11] "Friends were much troubled in their meetings with several who had gone from Truth and turned Ranters. They would come, both men and women, into Friends meetings, singing and dancing in a rude manner which was a great exercise [annoyance] to Friends. We staid sometime and had large and precious meetings, at several places. Many of the Ranters came to the meetings and the Lord s power was over them and chained them down. Some of them were reached and brought back to the Truth." -- Journal of William Edmundson quoted in The Quakers in the American colonies by Rufus M. Jones (London, Macmillan, 1911).

[12] Report on the Province of New York in 1687 by Governor Donegan, quoted in The Quakers in the American colonies by Rufus Matthew Jones, Amelia (Mott) Gummere, Isaac Sharpless, Isaac (London, Macmillan, 1911)

[13] Here is the paragraph: "There was, at least in all the northern Colonies, in the seventeenth century a large and dangerous sprinkling of Ranters. They did not originate from the Quakers, as they ante-dated the latter by some years. They were a part of a widespread, though some what chaotic movement in England, and there was an out-cropping of the same tendency in America. Among the groups of Anabaptists, Seekers, and so-called " Antinomians," wherever they appeared, there formed a radical wing composed of those who were less stable mentally, less organized morally, and less under the social direction of the groups to which they belonged. The Friends, with their lack of ecclesiastical authority, and with their doctrine of the Light within, were almost certain to suffer from the Ranter propagandism, and the move ment did pick off some of the members who were ill-balanced and easy subjects of fanaticism. The Quaker leaders had powerfully proclaimed the possibility of complete salvation from sin, and it was only to be expected that some emotional Quakers, especially such as had a strain of hysteria, would make extravagant claims. One illustration of this Ranter tendency will suffice, taken from the Annals of Newtown, Long Island." -- The Quakers in the American colonies by Rufus M. Jones (London, Macmillan, 1911)Walter Bowne (1770-1846)

Mr Cornell Sworne: Saith that yesterday was three weekes, hee Saw Tho: Case [i.e., Thomas Case] at flushing at John Bouno's [i.e., Bowne's, about whom I've previously written] or before his Doore and did see him make a great disturbance there; And bade him go away, and not make such a disturbance, to the w'ch hee Answered, hee would not goe, till hee saw his owne Time.

Mr Wandall Sworne, Saith, That hee hath knowne Tho: Case Seu'rall times since his being Bound to the Good Behavior, Preaching and denouncing Judgm't against ye People; And having severall people from Oyster Bay and other Places, at his House Some Singing, and others in other Postures wth seurall Tones; In Particular of Sam'U Scudders strange Actings, and others in Cases House, lying like Doggs, Hoggs and Cowes: Thoin: Wandall Acts some, It was done before Case. -- David Jennings & John Woolstoncraft Sworne -- Woolstoncraft, Saith, That Tho: Case told him at a particular time there was a great smell of Brimstone, hee replied, bee was afraid Case was going that way.

Another time, that David Jennings fell downe, as if dead, and Case undertooke to bring him to life tho: Wandall was also pr'sent the same time.

Jennings formerly one of the Congregacon relates that hee was as it were, smitten dead at the time Spoken of by ye Lord, as hee thinks.

Hee Saith, when hee was one of them, hee did at first, Shake of his owne accord, but afterwards it tooke him, at unaware, when others did the like.

Hee Confesses that Case hath Preached to him seurall times.

Mr Cornell Saith, hee hath w'th drawne several from their ffamilyes, particularly one Edward Banbury of Mad-Nans Neck who neglected his ffamily, so that hee and his ffamily, were ready to Starve.

That one of Cases Crew pr'tended to have the gift of Languages at times.

Thomas Wandall Saith, that there was a meeting at his House, for 14 dayes together, and Keepes many poore People from their ffamilyes and businesse.

In particular Cleares wife and Applebyes wife (the woman Committed on Saturday).

-- James Way & Tho: Morrell, 1/2 Quakers Declares upon Oath --

James Way, Saith, that about a yeare & halfe agoe Tho: Case told him hee was God, But afterwards hee said hee was of God, and so must hee bee, or bee of the Devill.

Morrell, Relates Cases Catechising of a woman beginning, who made thee &c,

He saith the same as James Way about God.

William Wyat, Saith, that going once to heare Tho: Case preach, hee heard him say, that when hee should dye, hee should rise againe the third day.

Tho: Case being asked the truth of this, saith, It was reveled to him, that hee should rise againe, Wyat Saith That Case pronounced Judgm't against him.

[17] Thomas continued to reside in Newtown as is evidenced by a Last Will and Testament of April 25, 1694 (See Dr. John Stewart Timeline. Here is the text of the bequests to Mary Case:

Abstracts of Wills Vol I 1665-1707, page 53: Page 211.--JOHN GRAVES, Newtown. "I, John Graves, of Newtown, alias Middleborough, upon Long Island, being sicke and weake." Leaves to his father, Wm. Graves, all houses and land, and makes him executor. "If my sister Hannah or her children survive my father, then the same to go to her or her children." Legacies to Mary, wife of Thomas Case, Mary, wife of John Scudder, and Elizabeth, wife of John Alburtus of said town. Dated July 11, 1679. Witnesses, David Vickree, Mary Scudder.

Abstracts of Wills Vol I 1665-1707, page 53: Page 212.--WM. GRAVES, Newtown. Leaves legacies to Abigail, Mary, Hannah and Rebecca, the daughters of Joseph Phillips, of said town, all under age. Also to Joan Madock, widow to David Vickree, "now in the house with me." To Nicholas Elder, Mary Case, wife of Thomas Case, Mary Scudder, wife of John Scudder. Leaves to his daughter, Hannah Graves, six acres of upland next to the old house in Newtown. Also a cove of meadow near my creeke, and to extend from a certain white oak tree down the said creek to Captain John Coe's creek. Leaves all rest of land and goods to "the little children of my daughter Hannah Graves," and to "my grandchild, Abigail Dibble, now living in Connecticutt." Makes daughter Hannah executor, and Mr. Robert Field, Sr., and Lieut. Gershom Moore executors in trust. Leaves to Mr. Robert Field "my best suit of clothes, and to Lieut. Gershom Moore my beaver hatt, my pipe and my boots which were my son John's, and to George Wood, Sr., my cloak." Dated July 13, 1679. Witnesses, Thomas Eshrington, Nicholas Eades.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

I wrote the other day that a man named Walter Bowne helped capture a burglar at the warm-weather residence of my great-grandfather, Louis Windmuller. This man, as I said, was an undertaker and sometime knacker whose family hosted community "sociables" from time to time.[1] He was also a member of an old, prosperous, and greatly-respected family.[2] His great-great-uncle, Robert Bowne, set up a shop in Manhattan to sell stationery and print financial publications. The business, Bowne & Co., was a great success and became in time the nation's oldest public company. Just last month, after two and a third centuries as an independent entity, it was taken over by the RR Donnelley. The son of his great-great-aunt Sarah, Robert Bowne Minturn, amassed great wealth as a shipper during the first half of the 19th century and is known as one of the owners of the famous Flying Cloud clipper ship.[3]

The two Roberts, like other Quaker Bownes, were ardent philanthropists and reformers. The first was a vocal opponent of slavery and long-time governor of New York Hospital. He also helped organize New York's first bank and first fire insurance company; he also promoted the development of the Erie Canal.[4] The second donated the land on which Central Park was created, and, as first president of the Union League Club, was a staunch opponent of slavery and the Southern rebellion.[5]

The grandfather of Walter Bowne, also Walter Bowne, was a state senator and mayor of New York who, like his uncle Robert, promoted the construction of the Erie Canal, a project that, as one writer notes, "made an immense contribution to the wealth and importance of New York City."[6] Mayor Bowne also promoted urban cleanliness and sanitation as means for preventing disease and recognized the importance of securing an adequate and clean supply of water for New York.[7]

Walter Bowne's great-great-great-grandfather was John Bowne who had come to America with his parents in 1649 and became a leader of the Quaker community in Flushing, then part of New Netherland.[8] Although English settlers, such as the Bownes, had been granted freedom to practice religions other than the official Dutch Calvinism, Governor Peter Stuyvesant persecuted Quakers severely.[9] And although John Bowne was not himself a Quaker, he took it upon himself to defend the rights of Quakers. This intransigence led first to his arrest, conviction, and banishment and, eventually, to full vindication. Transported to Ireland by Stuyvesant's government, he proceeded by foot to Amsterdam and there laid his case before officials of the West India Company, the commercial monopoly that ruled the New Netherlands colony. He succeeded in convincing these officials of his sincerity, the depth of his conviction, and the rightness of his cause and they both returned him home and their expense and reprimanded the colonial government.[10]

John Bowne later became a Quaker, taking his lead from his wife, Hannah, who was unusually independent for a woman of her time. She became a prominent Quaker minister and traveled, on her own, to propagate her belief both locally and abroad.[11]

The Bowne family intermarried with other Quaker families of Manhattan, Long Island, and the neighboring regions, including some of my relatives. The founding member of my Thorne relatives was William Thorne, famed as a signer of the Flushing Remonstrance. His son, Joseph, married Mary Bowne, daughter of John Bowne and Hannah Feake Bowne. My family is descended from Joseph's brother, Richard. The genealogical tree is here. There's a Van Wyck branch on this tree which, as it turns out, intersects with the Bowne family tree at one point.

Bowne House in 1819. Built in 1661, this was John Bowne's original dwelling. It is the oldest building in Queens.

{View of Flushing (Long Island) North America. Mr Bowne's house. It remains in the possession of his family ever since 1661 time when it was built. Charles Etienne Pierre Motte, lithographer; Jacques Gérard Milbert, artist, 1825; source: NYPL Digital Gallery}

[1] Here is the death notice for Walter Bowne which appeared in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on September 21, 1921.

{source: fultonhistory.com}

[2] In 1892, the local paper took the occasion of Walter Bowne's wedding to give a short summary of the family. It shows Hannah's surname as Fitch rather than Feake and lists only the first of John Bowne's three wives. The others were Hannah Bickerstaff and Mary Cock.

[6] "New York did not rise to commercial preeminence until the beginning of the nineteenth century. Its rise is due to its central location on the Atlantic seaboard, and especially to its excellent harbor, which lies at the entrance to the fine natural waterway, the Hudson River and the Mohawk Valley, leading to the highly productive North-Central portion of the United States. The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 was the most important event in the business history of the city. " -- The new international encyclopæeia. The quote in my text comes from the Erie Canal in wikipedia. Louis Windmuller noted that the need for the canal was not at all obvious to contemporaries. He wrote: "In our own time De Witt Clinton was called an arrant fool because he wanted to connect the waters of our great lakes with the Hudson by his Erie Canal." -- letter to the editor of the Sun, February 23, 1893.

[8] "Although the Bownes of England could trace their ancestry back to William the Conqueror's time and were connected to many titled and powerful families, we do not know what caused John Bowne with his father, Thomas, and sister, Dorothy, to leave Lime Tree Farm in Matlock, Derbyshire, England to travel to Boston in 1649. After a few years, John left Boston for New York, and by 1661 had built his home in Flushing on land purchased from the Matincock Indians for eight strings of wampum (about $14). He married Hannah Feake, the niece of Governor John Winthrop of Massachusetts and cousin of Governor Robert Winthrop of Connecticut. John and Hannah had 8 children. After Hannah's death in 1677, he married again and had 8 more children." -- Bowne Family Biographies.

[9] Stuyvesant's predecessor as governor of New Netherland had granted English settlers freedom of religion as a means of enticing them to join the underpopulated Dutch colony. Those who took advantage of this offer were not at first Quakers and Stuyvesant took action against Quakers when they began to show up in the colony. He was not the only head of government to single out Quakers for persecution. Seventeenth-century governments were almost unanimous in believing that the Quakers were politically subversive in their commitment to independent thought, direct approach to God, and refusal to take oaths or provide any support for military establishments. They were also suspect for their lack of deference to the power structures of church and state. Many sources attest to this fact. See for example "Charles II, 1662: An Act for preventing the Mischeifs and Dangers that may arise by certaine Persons called Quakers and others refusing to take lawfull Oaths.", in Statutes of the Realm: volume 5: 1628-80 (1819), pp. 350-51. What is surprising is the resistance of the non-Quaker community to Stuyvesant's actions. I've written previously about the first complaint against them — the Flushing Remonstrance. See love, peace and liberty condemn hatred, war and bondage and Newtown families.

[10] The order of the West India Company said in part: "Wherefore it is our opinion that some connivance would be useful that the consciences of men, at least, ought ever to remain free and unshackled. Let everyone be unmolested as long as he is modest, as long as his conduct in a political sense is unimpeachable, as long as he does not disturb others or oppose the government. This maxim of moderation has always been the guide of the magistrates of this city [i.e., Amsterdam], and the consequence has been that from every land people have flocked to this asylum. Tread thus in their steps, and we doubt not you will be blessed." -- Annals of our colonial ancestors and their descendants by Ambrose Milton Shotwell (Printed for the author by R. Smith & co., 1895). See this publication for a detailed history of John Bowne's heroic achievement.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Autumn 1880, the Windmuller family closed up its country home in Woodside and moved into winter quarters at 19 W. 46th St.[1] Louis Windmuller had fenced his property and reportedly kept dogs loose on it to discourage intruders; he had also installed a burglar alarm in the main dwelling.[2] Undaunted by these security measures, a burglar broke into the place on November 7th of that year. A neighbor heard the alarm and, with the help of another neighbor, caught the thief red-handed. Here's the report of the break-in which appeared in the local paper that week. From the Newtown Register, November 11, 1880:

The report names George and Gustav Sussdorf who lived next door, and Walter Bowne (with his working man) who lived nearby. The Sussdorfs were old friends of the Windmullers. The Sussdorf and Windmuller estates stood side-by-side, of approximately equal size with a long common boundary.[3] Both families lived in large, imposing houses. The heads of both families were immigrants from Germany and business men with offices in Manhattan. The two men worked together on causes which German-American New Yorkers tended to support. The families of both men socialized with each other and were active parishioners of the local Episcopal church which Sussdorf and Windmuller had helped found and whose lay offices members of both families filled from time to time.[4]

This map shows the Sussdorf and Windmuller estates.

{Queens, Vol. 2A, Double Page Plate No. 6; Part of Ward Two Newtown. Map bounded by Jackson Ave., 13th St., Polk Ave., Lenox Ave., Woodside Ave.; Including Skillman Ave., Greenpoint Ave., Astoria Rd., Dickson St.]; Subplan; [Map bounded by Fisk Ave.; Including Lenox Ave., found in the Atlas of the borough of Queens, city of New York : based upon official plans and maps on file in the various city offices; supplemented by careful field measurements and personal observations, by and under the supervision of Hugo Ullitz (E. Belcher Hyde Map Company, 1913); source: NYPL Digital Gallery}

Walter Bowne, who came with his workman when he heard Sussdorf's gunfire, is not named on Woodside property maps of the time which probably means his house was not so imposing nor his property near as large as Sussdorf's or Windmuller's. He earned his living as an undertaker, but also, at least for a time, ran a knackery business.[5] The Bowne family were well known for their hospitality. The local weekly newspaper reported on small evening dance parties known as a "sociables" which they held at their home. These were polite gatherings where young people could freely mix with appropriate adult supervision.[6]

Five years after helping to foil Windmuller's burglar, Walter Bowne and his family were participants in an event which was the anti-type of the American dream (the one in which a young person's tenacity, hard work, and clean living leads him from poverty to (eventual) wealth and happiness). The rags-to-riches story which involved them starred a penniless boy, but not one whose true grit gained him success. Instead, it was his good fortune to be an heir to an estate of great value. It's interesting that this drama played out just before Little Lord Fauntleroy began to be serialized in St. Nicholas Magazine. Here's the account from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of March 10, 1885.

In the family of Walter Bowne, at Newtown, L.I., resides a boy named Thomas Rawlings, who a year ago was found in Woodside, homeless and hungry, by Walter Bowne's son. Fifteen years ago Thomas James Rawlings came to this country from Birmingham, England, bringing this boy, his son, with him. Mr. Rawlings died at Woodside three years ago, and the boy was lost sight of for two years until found as stated. Last Sunday Mrs. Bowne read a solicitor's notice in a newspaper, asking for information as to the whereabouts of Mr. Rawlings or his heirs. Mrs. Bowne had heard the boy remark that if a law suit pending in England should be decided in favor of his father's family they would be made rich. She questioned the boy and inquired if he had any proof that would establish his identity. He produced a lot of papers, some of them 200 years old, which had been intrusted to him by his father just before his death, and these papers prove to valuable now as establishing young Rawlings' right to his father's interest in a large estate in Wales, England. Mr. Bowne and the boy have seen the solicitor, who said that young Rawlings' share in tho property would be equal to £37,000. The estate has been tied up in the Chancery Court for twenty years.

----------

Two more maps

I've previously shown another version of this map of 1852 showing the area in which Sussdorf and Windmuller would place their estates. It's the wooded area to the left of the "T" in the word "TRAINS" and to the right of "John W. Morrell." Sussdorf's would be roughly where the map says "Place late of T. Cumberson" and Windmuller's would be in the area labeled "R. Bragaw."

{Map of Newtown, Long Island : designed to exhibit the localities referred to in the "Annals of Newtown" ; compiled by J. Riker, Jr., 1852.from The annals of Newtown, in Queens County, New York / James Riker, Jr.; source: NYPL Digital Gallery}

This map of 1913 identifies the Sussdorf and Windmuller properties and gives their acreage as 9.64 and 12, respectively. Jane Sussdorf was the widow of William who had died a few years earlier. The map was made just before Windmuller's death in the fall of that year.

[1] Windmuller did this most winters. Residents of Queens were then dependent on ferry service to cross the East River and that service became unreliable in the cold months. I've previously written about the skinny building at 19 West in which the family spent most winters. See 19 w. 46th St. and 19 w. 46th, again.

[3] When the Sussdorf estate was sold off in 1919, the developer was able to put up 50 apartment buildings on the land (see Sale of Sussdorf property New York Times, 18 May 1919). The former Sussdorf property is outlined in red and the old Windmuller property in blue on this Google satellite map.

[4] On their socializing, see for example this article from the New York Times of November 12, 1884.

And on their support for St. Paul's, see for example this extract from the Newtown Register of October 12, 1876.

[5] Here are some news items on Walter Bowne as undertaker. (unless otherwise noted, source of news accounts is fultonhistory.com).

The business carried on by Walter Bownes should be forbidden in the locality he occupies. The local board of health is competent to see that an executive order to this effect is strictly complied with. The premises should be cleansed, disinfected and covered with dry earth forthwith. -- Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York (New York (State). Legislature. Assembly, 1884)

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

At the time in the late 1860s when my great-grandfather, Louis Windmuller, bought a piece of land in Newtown, Queens, his neighbors were few and sparse.[1] He was part of a tiny, pioneering minority of prosperous businessmen seeking country retreats within commuting distance of their Manhattan offices. At that time the majority of local residents had migrated there long before, fleeing the intolerant 17th-century provinces of New England and seeking religious freedom in Dutch New Amsterdam. Among Windmuller's neighbors, the families earliest to arrive had been named Betts, Burroughs, Cumberson, Lawrence, Leverich, Moore, Morrell, Smith, and Van Alst. You can locate them on this map of 1852.

{source: Woodside: A Historical Perspective 1652-1994 by Catherine Gregory (Woodside On the Move, 1994), found in macaulay.cuny.edu and forgotten-ny.com}

These ancient families all have their stories. One of them boasted an ancestor who was one of the first settlers in the area, a man who objected to Dutch treatment of the Quakers and who therefore in 1657 signed the Flushing Remonstrance. This document was the first (ultimately successful) demand for religious toleration made in the American colonies.[2] Another family came from a noble lineage whose members had fought in Palestine with Richard the Lion-hearted, graced the illustrious court of Elizabeth I, served in the Long Parliament in the reign of Charles II, and secured fame as a friend and supporter of John Milton. A member of this family received, in 1689, one of the first British grants to farm in what would become Newtown.[3] Another family's forebear was known to be "a resolute character and warm advocate of popular rights." He came to Newtown from Salem, Massachusetts, in the 1630s. He had sufficient education to serve as town clerk under the Dutch and, having continued in that role after the British took over, was censured for bluntly expressing the town's grievances against unjust treatment handed out by the new English rulers. [4]

When Windmuller bought his land, his neighbors were the children and grand-children of men and women who had lived through the colonial rebellion. Throughout most of that war Newtown was occupied by British troops and frequently had many thousands of them encamped on its fields. James Riker, in his Annals of Newtown, tells of locals who fought on both sides of the conflict and of the confiscations, theft, and destruction of their property during this time.[5] One of them, a man who owned the land adjoining the property Windmuller was to purchase, gallantly fought off three British deserters as the war came to a close.[6]

You see a "Betts Avenue" on the 1852 map and by it property belonging to A. Betts and Theo H. Betts. These two were descendants of one of Newtown's most illustrious citizens. William O'Gorman describes him thus:

Captain Richard Betts, whose public services appear for fifty years on every page of Newtown’s history, came in 1648 to New England, but soon after to Newtown, where he acquired great influence. In the revolution of 1663 he bore a zealous part, and after the conquest of New Netherlands’ by the English was a member from Newtown of the provincial Assembly held at Hempstead in 1665. In 1678 he was commissioned high sheriff of "Yorkshire upon Long Island," and he retained the position until 1681. He became a bitter opponent to Director Pieter Stuyvesant and the little town of Bushwick, which he had founded. Under leave from the governor the English settlers had planted their town, but were refused the usual patent, and in 1656 Richard Betts administered a severe blow to Stuyvesant by purchasing the land for himself and 55 associates, from the red men, at the rate of one shilling per acre. The total cost amounted to £68 16s. 4d., which, with the sum of £76 9s. paid to the sachems Pomwaukon and Rowerowestco, extinguished the Indian title to Newtown. For a long series of years Betts was a magistrate. During this time he was more than once a member of the high court of assize, then the supreme power in the province. He became an extensive landholder at the English Kills. His residence was here, in what is still known as "the old Betts house." ... The old house which we may enter by lifting the wrought iron latch of heavy construction, worn by the hands of many generations; the polished flags around the old deep well, where the soldiers were wont to wash down their rations, are still as the British left them on their last march through Maspeth. This house is but one of several most ancient farm houses still carefully preserved for their antiquity, on the old Newtown road, between Calvary Cemetery and Maurice avenue. These venerable companions have witnessed many changes, and now enjoy a green old age, respected by the community in which they stand.[7]

Prominent families of New York; being an account in biographical form of individuals and families distinguished as representatives of the social, professional and civic life of New York city edited by Lyman Weeks (New York, The Historical company, 1897)

[1] I've written a couple of other posts about Windmuller and his country estate: Bragaws and Woodside.

[2] The ancestor was John Townsend. He came to New Amsterdam in 1640 and a few years later received permission to settle in the area that later became Newtown. Back in January I wrote a blog post about the Flushing Remonstrance: love, peace and liberty condemn hatred, war and bondage.

[3] Here's an awe-struck account of this set of ancestors:

It has been said of the Lawrences that "they were related to all that was most illustrious in England, to the ambitious Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the favorite courtier of Queen Elizabeth, and to Sir Philip Sidney, who refused a throne." The earliest ancestor of this family, of whom there is an authentic record, was Sir Robert Lawrence, of Ashton Hall, Lancashire, who accompanied King Richard Coeur de Lion to Palestine, and was the first to plant his standard on the walls of Acre in 1191. His grandson, Sir James Lawrence, in the time of Henry III., married Matilda Washington. Among the descendants of this marriage were Sir John Lawrence, who, in the reign of Henry VII., was the owner of thirty-four manors; Henry Lawrence, a member of the Long Parliament, and William Lawrence, the friend of Milton.

The family was one of the first of distinction to send its representatives from England to the New World. Three sons of William Lawrence came to the American Colonies. John and William arrived in the ship Planter, and Thomas Lawrence, the youngest brother, afterwards joined them. They went first to New England, where their kinsman, Henry Lawrence, had received with Lord Say and Seal, Lord Brooke, Saltonstall and others a large grant of land in Connecticut, from which the settlement of Saybrook originated. Later they came to New Netherland and became landowners, men of wealth and influence in the Province. John Lawrence was Mayor of New York from 1673 to 1675, and again in 1691, and was a Justice of the Supreme Court and a member of the Governor's Council from 1672 to 1679. He left no male descendants.

Captain William Lawrence was the head of the patentees of Flushing, Long Island, in 1645, a magistrate under the Dutch administration, and a military officer under the English Government. He was the ancestor of Captain James Lawrence, U. S. N., commander of the frigate Chesapeake in its memorable action with the British ship Shannon in 1813, whose dying words, "Don't give up the ship," have become immortal, and whose tomb is now a conspicuous feature of the graveyard of Trinity Church, New York.

Major Thomas Lawrence, the youngest of the three brothers, was the chief patentee of Newtown, Long Island, and commander of the Queens County forces in 1689. His son William was a member of Jacob Leisler's Committee of Safety in 1689, and a Councillor of the Province in 1690, and from 1702 to 1706. -- Prominent Families of New York

[4] -- Having received support from the town council, this man, John Burroughes, wrote again and this time was punished. The order reads: "that John Burroughes be forthwith committed into the custody of the sheriff of this city, to remain in prison until some time on Monday next, then to be brought to the whipping-post, before the city hall, and being fastened thereunto, to stand an hour, with a paper on his breast setting forth the cause thereof to be for signing seditious letters in the name of the town of Newtown, against the government and court of assizes, and that he be rendered incapable of bearing any office or trust in the government, for the future." -- The annals of Newtown, in Queens county, New-York: containing its history from its first settlement, together with many interesting facts concerning the adjacent towns ; also, a particular account of numerous Long island families now spread over this and various other states of the union by James Riker (D. Fanshaw, 1852)

One night, a little before the peace, Thos. Cumberson was awakened by a knocking at his door by some persons, who asked the way to Hallet's Cove. They then wanted to come in and get something to eat. This he refused, as the hour was unseasonable. They affected to go off satisfied. But, suspecting they might return again, Cumberson dressed himself, and stood his loaded gun by his bed. In a short time, without notice, his front door was forced open by a stone as large as a man could well manage. The robbers then rushed in upon him, and one cried out, " Now, you rascal, we've got you." He fired instantly and lodged the load in the fellow's abdomen, and sung out, as to a friend present, " Hand the other gun, or fire yourself." Thereupon, all three decamped. The wounded man essayed to mount his horse, but failed. He, however, snapped his pistol at Cumberson, who had followed him out of doors, and was looking on. Finally he begged to be led into the house. C. told him he had been in once. " Yes, to my sorrow," said the wounded man, throwing down his pistol and falling on the ground. He at first refused to give up the names of his associates; but on being told by the British surgeon that he had but a short time to live, he confessed all. His name was Michael Hogans. Three of them had deserted from the British camp at Flatbush and come over to the English Kills, where they broke open the King's stables and stole three wagoner's horses. His two accomplices, Docharty and Lyons, rode off to Hallet's Cove, where stealing a boat, they crossed the river, and were never heard of afterwards. The wounded man died eight hours after in great agony, and was sewed up in a blanket of Mrs. C.'s, and buried in the woods east of the house. -- Documents and letters intended to illustrate the revolutionary incidents of Queens county: with connecting narratives, explanatory notes, and additions by Henry Onderdonk (Leavitt, Trow and company, 1846)

[7] From "Remains of Ancient Newtown," a series of articles by William O’Gorman, in the Long Island Star, 1879-80, quoted in HISTORY OF QUEENS COUNTY (New York, W.W. Munsell & Co., 1882)